Intentions to Marry, 1871

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840383, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 263

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1871

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
101	8 November 1871	Henry Holmes Jane Barnham	Henry Holmes Jane Burnham Wilson 💍 1871/7263	Bachelor Spinster	Clicker Stepd Miller	25 21	Wellington Wellington	3 months 21 years	Residence of Wilson	72/155		8 November 1871	Rev J. Mort
102	10 November 1871	Alexander Palethorpe Betsy Inkersell	Alexander Palethorpe Betsy Inkersell 💍 1871/7260	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter C. Inkersell Currier	29 18	Wellington Wellington	9 months 18 years	House of C. Inkersell Tasman Street	72/154	C. Inkersell, Father	10 November 1871	Rev J. Mort
103	18 November 1871	George Alder Stratford Emma Fawcett	George Alder Stratford Emma Fawcett 💍 1871/7275	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman d. Lon Fawcett Laborer	25 19	Wellington Wellington	25 years 19 years	House of W. Simmonds Very Street	72/159	W. Fawcett, Father	18 November 1871	Rev J. Dean
104	20 November 1871	Charles Richard Mylie Priscilla Fawcett	Charles Richard Wylie Priscilla Fawcett 💍 1871/7278	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer d. Lon Fawcett Laborer	24 18	Ohariu Valley Wellington	24 years 18 years	House of Charlotte Morgan Tinakori Road	72/160	W. Fawcett, Father	20 November 1871	Rev J. Dean
105	24 November 1871	James George Gray Susan Bills	James George Gray Susan Bills 💍 1871/7269	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Domestic Servant	31 20	Wellington Wellington	21 years 6 years	House of Rev J. Mort	72/159	no relation	12 December 1871	Rev J. Mort
106	24 November 1871	William Staples Mary Davie Schultze	William Staples Mary Davie Tweedie Schultze 💍 1871/7239	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer d. H. Schultze Rent Collector	24 21	Wellington Wellington	13 months 11 years	House of Hy Schultze Tasman Street	72/147		24 November 1871	Rev J. Paterson
107	28 November 1871	James Dunn Sarah Anne McManaman	James Dunn Sarah Anne McManaman 💍 1871/7242	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk d. McManaman Terawhite	34 23	Wellington Terawhiti	7 years 23 years	House of McManaman Terawhite	72/148		28 November 1871	Rev J. Paterson

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).